Practical papers—Success in farming. 38 i 
or a column of a paper. Somewhere a responsibility rests, if the 
son of a farmer is of this class. 
But aside from this general knowledge and intelligence, it is 
absolutely necessary to success that the farmer should have knowl¬ 
edge of his business. And this knowledge should not be a mere 
narrow, mechanical sort of intelligence which will tell him how 
to perform the mechanical part of his work. I have not time 
here to discuss the question of special agricultural education. I 
believe in it, and believe there is a bright future before our agri¬ 
cultural colleges. With imperfections, with faults and mistakes 
in the colleges, the greatest lack in Wisconsin to-day in this mat¬ 
ter, is a lack of demand for a thorough agricultural education. 
The agricultural department of our State University lacks a num¬ 
ber of things, but its greatest lack is of students willing to avail 
themselves of the advantages it offers. I wish there were more 
stock in the barns on the experimental farm, but vastly more im¬ 
portant than this is it that there be found 100, 60, 25 farmers and 
farmers’ sons in Wisconsin who will believe it will pay them to 
come and take a regular full course in this agricultural depart¬ 
ment. 
But I am talking mainly to those whose school days are over. 
The need for more knowledge about your business, all ought to feel. 
I can think of no calling which for its highest possible develop¬ 
ment requires a wider range of knowledge than does farming. 
What sources of information are open to you? First of all, use 
your own eyes to observe, and your mind to study your own ex¬ 
perience. But the tongue and ear ought not to be idle. Life is 
short, too short for any one man to learn all there is to be known 
about farming. If one could live 1,000 years, he might, perhaps, 
commence at the bottom and, refusing all advice, all experience 
not his own, learn to be a good farmer, but life is too short for this. 
No man knows as much as all his neighbors. It is worse than 
folly to refuse to avail yourself of the knowledge of your neigh¬ 
bor. And so I have t alked and written and in every way urged that 
by ordinary conversation, in the farmers’ club, at the fairs, in the 
county and state agricultural conventions we learn each from the 
other. This convention we call a success. It has set us think¬ 
ing. We have learned something. You are all glad you came. 
